


A Lady and her Guard

by Mouse_Writes



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-01
Updated: 2019-05-01
Packaged: 2020-02-10 19:02:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18666463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mouse_Writes/pseuds/Mouse_Writes
Summary: Lady Lianna and her personal guard, Jiadi, enjoy the last quiet moment before their worlds come crashing down around them.





	A Lady and her Guard

**Author's Note:**

> _This was actually a request and probably full of typos but I figured it deserved a place here as well._

“You should be down at the festival,” Jiadi chided, smiling slightly.

“I don’t have the patience for nobles tonight. I went to enjoy the alcohol.” Liana stood at her window, already changed out of her stiff layers and into a simple wool nightgown. Her hair, though, was still up and taking it down was proving more trouble than she’d expected. Of course, she’d maybe had too much to drink, and her fingers fumbled more than usual as well.

“Your mother was so hoping to find you a suitor, though,” her guard said, coming up behind her, their fingers brushing as she went to remove the dozens of pins from her lady’s hair.

Lianna felt her cheeks flush. Her bed chambers were cold and she could feel the heat coming from Jiadi. “My mother can do all she likes, Ria and Sasha can keep all the suitors for all I care.” Besides, she was the youngest. Her sisters had more need of rich suitors than she.

“They are not all bad. Some of the men were nice even to me.” There was a frown in her voice as she pulled the last pin, letting a tight ringlet fall down Lianna’s back. Ladies of House Vilar never cut their hair, and Lianna’s reached nearly to her knees in waves of thick darkest-red.

“And what if I don’t want any of them?” Lianna’s voice was softer now.

“What do you want, my lady?”

Lianna turned around, looking up into the face of her most faithful guard. She still wore her armor, the padded wool of her overcoat dyed a deep wine red over black trousers and polished brown boots. Lianna’s cheeks were burning and her head felt light. “I want you to kiss me.”

Jiadi simply looked at her for a moment, her intense eyes burning with an emotion Lianna couldn’t name. Then her hands came up, one to the lady’s shoulder and the other to her lips. “We shouldn’t,” she said, her voice catching slightly.

“Tonight, I want only you.” Lianna took a step closer, until there was only a breath of space between them.

Jiadi bent and closed the space between them. Lianna pressed herself against the taller woman, her hands moving to the small of Jiadi’s back, catching at the thick padding of her armor.

They pulled back, breathless, looking at each other. Lianna turned her eyes down and took gentle hold of Jiadi’s hand, guiding her across the room to the bed. She sat down, facing her guard. “I want to know,” she breathed, pulling Jiadi to her. “I want you to show me.”

Her beautiful guard kissed her again, more fervently.

 

Lianna stirred when Jiadi jerked suddenly upright. Before she could ask what the matter was, she heard it - crashing and sudden screams. The guard was out of bed in a flash, naked as the day she was born but going for her sword. She checked the lock on the door and went to the windows as Lianna pulled the blankets to her chest and stood.

When Jiadi turned back, her face was pale. “Get dressed, my lady, quickly. In your riding leathers!” As she spoke, she began to hastily don her own armor again, scraping her black hair out of her face.

“What is it?” The panic in Jiadi’s voice had her obeying at once, going to her wardrobe. The commotion downstairs was getting louder each second. A woolen divided skirt, a thick cotton shirt and a dark blue riding coat. It took only a minute to dressed, another to lace up her riding boots. Jiadi was already finished by the time Lianna stood again but they both froze at the pounding on her door.

Jiadi drew her sword, white-knuckled as she called out, “who is there?”

“It is Bastian, my lady! I beg you open the door!”

Jiadi went to the door and in a flash, she had unlocked it, opened it long enough to pull a frazzled footboy through the door, then shut and locked it again.

Bastian was a friendly young man, always sneaking Lianna snacks when she asked and had a habit of making her laugh until she could barely breathe. But now he stood in her bedchamber, blood on his collar and cuffs, pale and breathless. “You must flee, my lady!”

“What has happened?” Lianna demanded, her panic rising.

“It is the Vane’s,” Jiadi cursed. “Their banners fly within your walls, my lady. Bastian is right, we must go.”

Lianna ignored her, just for a moment. “Bastian, what of my family? Did they escape?”

He looked at her with such sad eyes and Lianna felt herself go cold. “Bastian, where are they? My mother? Ria and Sasha? Where is my father?” Her voice was getting higher now, and she had grabbed him.

“They were all down in the great hall. Everything is on fire, I don’t - I don’t know if they got away.”

Lianna turned to Jiadi. “We have to find them! We have to go down and-”

“My duty is to protect you, my lady. We will find your family when you are safe. Bastian, you may come with us if you wish, but we are leaving now.” Jiadi went to the wall and pulled aside a tapestry, revealing the hidden door behind it.

Lianna felt numb, hardly hearing Bastian as he agreed to join them, barely noticing as Jiadi took her wrist and pulled her into the dark corridor. They moved quickly, snaking through the hidden tunnels toward the river exit.

Less than five minutes passed before they emerged into the cold night air, their breath hanging in front of their mouths like clouds.

“There are horses downriver. We have to hurry,” Jiadi instructed.

“The castle…” Bastian whispered.

Lianna turned and a sob caught in her throat. Flames licked at the sky, belching great plumes of black smoke into the darkness. The very black of night now held an orange cast. Nobody could survive that…

“Halt! Where did you come from?” The voice that called out to them was accented. One of Vane’s men, no doubt.

“Run!” Jiadi hissed, shoving Lianna and Bastian around roughly, propelling them down the path. They took off, running far faster than Lianna had ever had to run before.

The man follow then, yelling all the way, and then Bastian stumbled beside them. Lianna looked over and saw an arrow protruding from his shoulder. Before she could react, Jiadi had pulled them off the road and into the bush.

Bastian was bleeding badly but, somehow, he kept their pace. Jiadi took them into the thickest parts of the forest before she finally slowed down. Stopping, she looked at Bastian’s wound. Without hesitation, she snapped off the length of shaft that protruded above his shoulder. He stifled the cry that rose to his lips, biting down on his wrist as he shook.

“We will have to find you a healer. Until then, we can only leave that where it is.” Jiadi looked to Lianna then, and handed her a dagger. “I’ve taught you to wield it. Use it against anybody that approaches. I will come back with the horses. If i am not back within the hour, follow the river north, find your uncle.”

Lianna grabbed Jiadi’s wrist as the guard turned to go. “Don’t make me go alone,” she pleaded. “Come back.”

Jiadi stepped forward and placed a kiss to her lady’s forehead. “I will do all that I can to return to you. Keep him safe,” she said, nodding to Bastian. He had sat down against a tree, the whole left side of his shirt soaked with sweat and blood.

“Hurry back,” Lianna said, giving her guard’s hand one last squeeze before letting her go. Jiadi melted into the shadows and was gone in a moment, the forest around them deathly silent save for Bastian’s heavy breathing.

Hardly a quarter hour passed before Lianna heard someone approaching. She stood, holding the blade close to her breast, facing the direction of the noise. They were silent enough, perhaps whoever it was would simply pass them…

Of course, the gods seemed to care little for Lianna’s prayers. A man appeared quite suddenly less than a hundred paces away, wearing the grey and blue uniform of the Vane’s. He grinned at them. “If it isn’t little miss Lianna Vilar. Lord Vane was so sorry to miss you at the festival. I would be more than willing to escort you to him,” he sneered.

“Stay away from us,” Lianna warned, blood pounding in her ears.

“Is that how you Vilar’s were raised to treat concerned knights?” He feigned offense, the whole charade ruined by the grin he couldn’t keep off his face. “Perhaps I should teach you a couple of lessons before I return you to Lord Vane.”

“I am not going anywhere with you!”

“Look out!” Bastian warned about a second before a hand suddenly caught hold of Lianna’s hair, jerking her back. She cried out, nearly dropping her dagger. She hadn’t even heard anybody approach!

“Now then, the first lesson is that you always accept offered help,” the first man began as he approached them.

Biting back tears, Lianna thrust her dagger backwards, earning a grunt. The hold on her hair was released and she fell to the earth heavily. Before the man who had grabbed her could recover, she jumped to him and slit his throat. That was Jiadi’s first lesson - eliminate the treat without remorse.

The first man paused, his expression changing as Lianna turned back to face him. “I admit, I’m impressed. The little girl has some spunk.”

Lianna kept quiet. She needed him to keep underestimating her.

“Surely you’re too old for the silent treatment,” he grumbled. “Lord Vane will no liket-”

Silver flashed through the night and the man choked on his words, looking down at the blade that protruded from his chest. He dropped to his knees as Lianna approached him, pulling the dagger from his chest. “Lesson two,” she said quietly, “aim for the heart.” She leaned forward and slit his throat. He crumpled there and she returned to Bastian. His eyes were wide as he watched her.

“I didn’t know you could…” he stopped there, unsure how to even complete the thought.

“Jiadi ensured I would always be able to protect myself,” she told him, her hands shaking. Even so, she’d never had to take another life. Her hands were warm and slick up to the elbow with blood. She realized something, sitting there in the dark. There was one tradition that made her an easy target, easy to spot in a crowd…

“My lady, what are you doing?” Bastian questioned as she gathered her long hair in clumps and began to saw through the locks with her dagger. Sharp as it was, hair was hard to cut.

“Short hair is harder to grab hold of. And if we must go into hiding, my hair would give us all away.”

By the time Jiadi returned with two horses, Lianna had cut her hair so that it barely reached her shoulders, and she was still covered in blood. Seeing the dead men answered whatever questions the guard might have had and so they mounted the horses and turned north without a word. Bastian rode with Jiadi on a large bay workhorse, Lianna on a smaller grey mare.

Lianna, in particular, rode in silence. They had meant to kill her, or to take her back to Lord Vane where he would have killed her. Even so, their faces would not leave her mind. The dried blood on her hands would wash off, but she would carry the weight of their deaths with her no matter where she went now.


End file.
